


One more time with feeling

by whoistorule



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-06
Updated: 2012-11-06
Packaged: 2017-11-18 03:08:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/556211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whoistorule/pseuds/whoistorule
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rockstar AU (ships are <a href="http://bloodandglory-rp.tumblr.com">Blood & Glory RP</a> canon)</p><p>The thing was, it was hard enough being a 17 year old rock star with a very rambunctious pet dog, it really was.  So of all the people in the entire country, why did Rickon Stark have to fall for the Prime Minister's daughter?</p>
            </blockquote>





	One more time with feeling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [prufrockes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/prufrockes/gifts).



The thing was, it was hard enough being a 17 year old rock star with a very rambunctious pet dog, it really was. So of all the people in the entire country, why did Rickon Stark have to fall for the Prime Minister's daughter?

Okay, so, maybe rock star was an exaggeration, after all Rickon was just the drummer, but Alys & the Starks' latest album 'Dorrito Love' had gone gold, and adding the extra r had stopped the lawsuit, and there was even going to be an article about them in Rolling Stone, so exaggeration shmexaggeration, really. 

But, even if he wasn't completely a rock star, Shireen was definitely the Prime Minister's daughter. And Rickon was definitely in trouble. Stannis Baratheon wasn't exactly known for trying to appeal to the teen set by befriending rock stars. No, he was more the type to declare it treason for daring to be fun. Anyway, he hated Shaggydog, and that was unacceptable. He'd told Shireen's bodyguard (Codename: Patchface) to bar Shaggydog from the room the last time Shireen came backstage after a show. 

The worst part wasn't even that Stannis Baratheon was her father, no, it was that he'd told Robb. And Robb of course had blabbed to Theon. Rickon bet they were laughing at him behind his back. At least Alys was nice about it, she'd ooh and awwed in all the appropriate places as Rickon explained how Stannis Baratheon had finally forbid Shireen from seeing him after she got sick after the concert. Shireen had tried to explain that it was just because there were so many people, but, no, Baratheon was a dick. (Of course he was. He hated Shaggydog.) 

All Alys had was some advice about how 'secret relationships were hard' and 'the sneaking around sounds fun at first but sometimes you just want to go out for dinner,' and 'it's an interview in Rolling Stone, I haven't seen him in three years, it's not like he was celibate before me, just because he was my fiance doesn't mean he is my fiance now that's why he's my ex-fiance, and the cover of Rolling Stone is not something you turn down just because the reporter is your ex-fiance, I'm sorry, what were we talking about?' which really wasn't all that helpful. 

That meant Jon was out, too. Whatever Alys was doing, Jon was definitely going to be busy with that. It sounded like he was in for an argument. Briefly, Rickon wonders if the only part of Alys's long-winded ramble that had anything to do with secret relationships was about her and Jon, but that was silly. Everyone knew about Alys and Jon, that wasn't any kind of a secret. 

When Rickon went to Bran, too, but he'd been busy practicing keyboard. 'You're seventeen now, Rickon,' Bran had said between chord progressions, 'you're practically a man grown. It's time to make these decisions by yourself.' 

So this was it. It was time. Really, Rickon knew all along who he'd have to turn to, the rest of them were useless, really. Barreling himself, he held Shaggydog's collar firmly. "We're not nervous, Shaggy," he said, taking a deep breath, "No need to shake, we'll be fine." 

Knocking roughly on the back door of the equipment van, Rickon pulled the door open, only to be met with a large cloud of smoke. Coughing, Rickon followed Shaggy into the back of the van, pulling the door shut behind him. Amidst the amps and electrical cords was his sprawled out sister, and the hulking figure of her boyfriend Gendry. Their recreational use of the equipment van was about as much of a secret as the relationship between their bassist and their lead singer, and Rickon leaned back against the wall of the van, pulling his knees up to his chest. 

"What's up little brother, what kind of mischief can I help you get into?" asked Arya. 

"Okay. You have to promise not to laugh. Both of you." 

"We promise." 

"Hey," Gendry swatted at her arm playfully, "Don't promise for me." 

"I can and I will. We promise." 

"I promise individually," Gendry said solemnly. Arya opened her mouth to retort, but, knowing Rickon needed him as he always did, Shaggy barked, and Rickon cleared his throat. 

"Anyway. Not me. But a friend. A friend of Osha's, actually, not even a friend of mine, well he likes this girl. Only the girl's dad is sort of super angry because of reasons that are not his fault at all, and it wouldn't be a big deal because this friend of Osha's isn't afraid of anything, not really, only the dad is this kind of really powerful guy so the friend of Osha's kind of…. screwed." 

"Dude is this about Shireen?" 

Gendry's question startled Rickon, and he stared at the older boy, his mouth agape. 

"Yeah everyone knows about her little brother, she comes to all your London and hangs out in your dressing room, what did you expect?" 

Shaggydog seemed equally as shocked, as even he couldn't manage to conjure up a sound to save his life, and so there was nothing to distract Arya and Gendry from the shock all over Rickon's face. 

"Tiny, I gotta tell you, this is too big for us." 

"No, we can do this," Arya said, but there was doubt in her voice. 

"We can't. You know we need her. She loves this romance crap." 

"But she's going to be so annoying about it." 

"It's not about us Arya, it's for Rickon." 

Arya let out a long dramatic sigh before she turned back to her brother. "Gendry's right. As much as I hate to say it, we can't help you with this one alone," she said with all the wisdom of our 21 years. "You know who we need." 

Rickon groaned, and yet somehow he knew all along that _this_ is what it would come to. 

"Sansa." 

\--------- 

"My goodness, would you look at the hour, I thought to expect you quite some time ago so I'm afraid the tea I'd brewed has gone cold, but quick, let me put up another pot." Sansa busied herself, making them at home in her office as she ran about getting them tea from the kitchen. Shaggy's tail thumped noisily against the carpet and Rickon found himself shaking his head at his dog, reminding him to be well behaved. 

"You know normal people just go for the gloat and say 'what took you so long,'" Arya said, putting her feet up on Sansa's desk while Gendry roamed around the office, picking up picture frames at random. 

"Well when you tell the entire band a secret, it gets back to me, I am the band manager after all, it's my job to know these things. I just wish you had come to me sooner, I'd have thought you trusted me more." 

Rickon trusted Sansa all right, trusted her to go right for the gut with her guilt speeches. Polite and sweet as always was his older sister, but at 22 she'd somehow managed to get to the guilt even better than mum did. Maybe it was because she was the person who was in charge of everything, she did everything for the band, and okay, sometimes they forgot to thank her. Well, Robb always thanked her, and Alys, and Bran usually did, and Rickon tried to remember, really, it's just there were a whole bunch of things he wanted to remember, but then he'd have to walk Shaggy, or practice drums, or play FIFA, and he'd forget. 

(Arya never thanked her, but as head roadie, her job didn't exactly cross Sansa's too often unless they were fighting about spending money on petrol for the equipment van.) 

"You've got a lot of pictures," Gendry said, settling into an armchair. 

"I like to have memories nearby, it makes a space homey, gives it that personal touch." With a kind smile, Sansa handed Rickon, Arya, and Gendry each a mug of tea. "Now, Rickon, why don't you tell me what's going on with Shireen?" 

"Well, she's fine, really, she just gets a bit, you know, like her sick stuff, when there are a lot of people around, but she likes coming to the shows, and usually she just stands on the side of the stage but last time she promised me it would be okay she said she really wanted to see what it looked like from the front, and then she fainted or something I don't know PF wouldn't tell me, that's her bodyguard, anyway, now he won't let me see her ever ever again," Rickon finished, breathless, and took a big sip of tea. "Owwww thas hath" he lisped, patting his tongue with his fingers as it seared. 

"That's so romantic!" Sansa breathed, ignoring Arya's loud sigh and exaggerated eye roll. "Oh, forbidden love. Like Prince William and Kate Middleton" 

"Not Romeo and Juliet?" Arya asked, voice dripping with sarcasm. 

"How can it be? Our families aren't warring, unless the Baratheon government's ridiculous dislike of popular music can count as a war, I don't understand, if the United States president can stand with Jay-Z why can't our PM stand with some noble Scotsmen in kilts, but that's besides the point, the point is, even though Kate was a commoner--" 

"--A commoner worth billions," Arya muttered 

"EVEN THOUGH she was a commoner, their love surpassed all tests, and now she's going to make such a beautiful queen. What you need, Rickon, is a romantic gesture." 

That sounded right to Rickon. Even Arya was nodding, begrudgingly. A romantic gesture, yeah, that's definitely what he needed. 

"How did Jon Umber romantic gesture you?" Rickon asked, eyes rapt on his wise older sister. 

But Sansa laughed and shook her head, blushing slightly. "He uh, got in a fist fight with Robb. I don't recommend that route with the prime minister's daughter. No, we need something a little less violent and a little more…. sneaky." 

"I've got it!" Arya announced, standing, knocking over a row of picture frames with her feet. Sighing, Gendry started to pick them up, as Arya paced around the office, nearly knocking Shaggydog over. "I've got the perfect simple sneaky plan." 

\----- 

In the end the plan wasn't particularly sneaky. but since it involved no smoke machines or strobe lights, Rickon considered himself lucky. It was simple enough, though. All he had to do was convince the entire band to learn all the songs in the world that had names that rhymed with Shireen, and throw an impromptu concert out of the back of a moving vehicle. 

"U2 did it in New York City," had Arya promised as she detailed the plan, "And you are way cooler than Bono. You have a dog. And no stupid sunglasses." Rickon figured that that part, at least, was true. Shaggydog and him were way cooler than Bono. Bono was like a million years old. 

To his surprise, Sansa had agreed to all parts of the plan. "It will drum up publicity before that Rolling Stone interview," she'd said as she nodded approvingly, "And distract Alys and Jon from whatever fight they're in." 

"And give Bran something new to practice, because I swear if he keeps playing the same four bars of that love song he never finished writing Meera, I will push him out another window myself." 

It had pretty much devolved into Sansa scolding Arya, and Arya knocking over more of Sansa's pictures after that, but the main idea was there. Impromptu concert, all for Shireen. The biggest problem was, there only seemed to be about three songs in the entire world that rhymed with Shireen. But 'Come On, Shireen," worked well enough, and maybe Stannis Baratheon would be hard of hearing, and miss the part where he told her his thoughts verged on dirty. (In truth, Rickon wanted to cut that line, but he didn't want Robb, and by proxy, Theon, to laugh at him. So he left it in, and trained Shaggydog to bark over it.) 

The band had agreed with surprising quickness, to help him out with his plan. Jon and Alys had even made up, and if that had anything to do with the giant mess someone made knocking over all of their sheet music off the keyboard in the tour bus, Rickon really didn't want to know. And so here they were, rolling at 10 kilometres per hour through the London city streets, playing their hits out of the back of a truck. And it was working, too. The longer they played, the more people followed them through the streets, and the more people that followed them, the slower they drove, twisting and turning through London's narrow streets, until finally they pulled up at 10 Downing, crowd intact. 

"Mr. Prime Minister," Alys called out, tugging down the fabric of her very short skirt. (That was a bonus of being the drummer that Rickon never told anyone except Shaggy and Osha, his drum teacher, an excellent view of Alys's legs.) "This one's for you and the Queen!" 

They planned this part, launching into a high spirited cover of God Save the Queen, complete with a mid-song bass solo that Rickon never really understood, only that it made Jon happy to play Longclaw, his bass, in service of the Queen. 

"All right Rickon," Alys stage whispered, "Your turn." 

Rickon gulped down a heavy breath of air, and then another, his mouth suddenly dry as paper. Shakily, he stood behind his drum set, grabbing Shaggy's collar for support. "Hey London," he shouted, before he realized his mic wasn't on. Cursing Arya silently, he tapped his mic. "Hey London!" he tried again, his annoyance with his sister fueling his voice. "I want you to know that I like this really really cool girl. The coolest girl in the whole country, actually. And this song, and this whole concert, it's all for her. So Shireen, if you can hear this, this is for you!" 

It was the loudest, rockingest, best cover of Come On Eileen that Rickon had ever heard. Granted he was in it, his back up vocals shaking and breathy beneath Alys's steady alto, but present nonetheless, and Rickon swore he could see the curtains moving in one of the bedrooms, the hulking figure of PF silhouetted by the white curtains, and Shireen was surely behind him. 

When he finished, they finished, Rickon was shaking and covered with sweat, but more exhilirated than he'd ever been in his entire life. "What do you say London," Alys was shouting, riling up the crowd in her usual fashion, "Should our government give us Scotsmen a chance, should Baratheon give Rickon here a chance!" The crowd roared its approval and Rickon's heart surged, threatening to burst from his chest. 

"Shireen!" he shouted, stumbling out from behind the drum kit to Alys's mic. "Shireen! I know that you love crazy colored animals like blue shrimp, and food that isn't too spicy, and staying home on the weekend, and Shaggydog, and I hope, me, and I really want to go see the new James Bond movie with you, what do you say?" 

The crowd roared again, and the figured disappeared from behind the window. But 2 minutes turned to 5, and Alys turned to the band, figuring they had to do something with their crowd, and began cycling through their greatest hits. 

An hour and a half and three albums worth of hits later, PF lumbered out of Downing Street, a folded piece of paper in his hands. "For the obnoxious bog with the dog," he said, handing the paper to Alys, "The PM's words, oh oh I know." 

Turning towards Rickon with a question in her eyes, Alys offered him the paper, but Rickon shook his head. Go big or go home, right? 

"All right Londoners, we have word from the prime minister, and this is the first time any of us is reading it, you ready?" The crowd screamed, invested already in this love story in the making, but Rickon could barely hear them over the thump thump thump of his heart. 

"The Prime Minister doesn't compromise," Alys read aloud, raising her eyebrows, "But there's to be a _private screening_ " the crowd screamed again surging forward towards their impromptu stage, "Of Skyfall next week, and the whole band is invited as thanks for their concert today." Laughing, Alys threw the note behind her at Rickon and waved her arms, sending them into another riotous rendition God Save the Queen. "Thank you London!" she shouted, but all Rickon could hear was the beat of his heart and the happy barks of Shaggydog beside him. He had a date!


End file.
